Jeremy Hobson: Now let’s get to the big story this morning — that would be Mitt Romney’s victory in the New Hampshire primary.
Our regular Wednesday guest Josh Brown of Fusion Analytics is with us live from New York to dig into some of the criticism Romney laid out last night. Good morning, Josh.
Josh Brown: Good morning.
Hobson: So I want to play you something Romney said last night about the potential economic choice between him and President Obama.
Mitt Romney: He wants to turn America into a European-style social welfare state. We want to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity.
So Josh Brown, a “European-style social welfare state” — is that what folks like you on Wall Street think is happening?
Brown: You know, there’s always a little bit of concern from anyone on Wall Street when they see things like health care plans, etc. But I don’t think that anyone believes that that’s where we are right now. That really sounds more like Romney preaching to the Tea Party that has not quite come his way just yet.
Hobson: How much control do you see the president, whoever it is — whether it’s Romney or Paul or somebody else, or President Obama come 2012 — how much power do they have over the economy?
Brown: Jeremy, here’s the dirty little secret: the truth is, they could make things much, much worse, but there’s very little they can do to improve things. So typically, when you look at who’s in the White House, who controls Congress, it’s all a myth — there is no correlation. No one is any better than anyone else between Democrats and Republicans.
As a matter of fact, if you would have said back in 2008, I can’t believe they’re going to elect Obama — he’s anti-business, he’s anti-captialism; in the meantime, the S&P 500 is up over 50 percent since January of 2009 when Obama was sworn into office.
So I think the president’s impact on the economy is not quite what politicians would like it to be.
Hobson: Josh Brown of Fusion Analytics, thanks so much.
Brown: Thank you.
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